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China’s green exports to the US surge as AI boom, Iran war lift demand
SCMP

China’s green exports to the US surge as AI boom, Iran war lift demand

China’s exports of green-energy and battery products to the United States have accelerated amid demand in America’s fast-expanding AI sector, as cooling trade tensions and energy-security fears linked to the Iran war boost global appetite for renewable-energy equipment. Energy-related products posted some of the strongest gains among Chinese exports to the US last month, according to the latest cu...

China says it warned off multiple Japanese ‘provocations’ during aircraft carrier drills
SCMP

China says it warned off multiple Japanese ‘provocations’ during aircraft carrier drills

China has accused Japanese warplanes and ships of carrying out multiple “provocations” and surveillance operations during a carrier group’s deployment to the western Pacific for live-fire exercises. State broadcaster CCTV released a video on Monday showing at least four “close-range” encounters, and said the Liaoning carrier group had “warned off” the warships and surveillance planes. It included ...

Doctor boyfriend of sacked Hong Kong medical intern also fired for misconduct
SCMP

Doctor boyfriend of sacked Hong Kong medical intern also fired for misconduct

A doctor at Tuen Mun Hospital in Hong Kong has been fired for conducting an unauthorised procedure on a patient, in an incident linked to his medical intern girlfriend who was earlier dismissed and arrested for allegedly accessing patient data without permission. The Hospital Authority (HA) said on Monday evening that an investigation found the resident doctor had acted dishonestly and committed s...

Hong Kong doctor fired over misconduct linked to medical intern case
SCMP

Hong Kong doctor fired over misconduct linked to medical intern case

A doctor at Tuen Mun Hospital has been fired for conducting an unauthorised examination on a patient at another hospital, in an incident linked to an intern who was sacked and arrested for allegedly accessing patient data without permission. The Hospital Authority (HA) on Monday evening said its investigation committee concluded that the resident doctor acted dishonestly and committed serious misc...

Australian public cooling on Trump’s US while thawing on China, survey finds

Australian public cooling on Trump’s US while thawing on China, survey finds

SCMP

Australian trust in the United States has hit a record low, while the public mood towards China has warmed for the fourth year in a row, according to a new opinion poll. In an unprecedented shift, 51 per cent of those surveyed said the country’s relationship with China was more important than that with the US, compared with 45 per cent who said America should take priority. Only 31 per cent of tho...

What does US Pacific Command name change mean for China and India?

What does US Pacific Command name change mean for China and India?

SCMP

In a layered signal to Indo-Pacific nations and America’s domestic audience, the Trump administration last week said the US Indo-Pacific Command would revert to its long-used name, the US Pacific Command. The Honolulu-headquartered command was renamed in 2018 during Donald Trump’s first presidency. The administrative order by the Department of Defence was justified to honour the legacy of America’...

Boy, 5, starved to death was half normal weight for age, Hong Kong court told

Boy, 5, starved to death was half normal weight for age, Hong Kong court told

SCMP

A five-year-old boy died after his mother physically abused, confined and starved him until he was a mere 9.7kg (21.38lbs) – half the normal weight for his age – a Hong Kong court has heard. The 38-year-old mother, only identified as “LST” at the High Court, on Monday pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter and another of cruelty to a child over the death of her son in September 2022. An autop...

Hong Kong court hears boy’s weight fell to 9.7kg from starvation before death

Hong Kong court hears boy’s weight fell to 9.7kg from starvation before death

SCMP

A five-year-old boy died after his mother physically abused, confined and starved him until he was a mere 9.7kg (21.38lbs) – half the normal weight for his age – a Hong Kong court has heard. The 38-year-old mother, only identified as “LST” at the High Court, on Monday pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter and another of cruelty to a child over the death of her son in September 2022. An autop...

Hong Kong court hears of boy’s final moments after being beaten, starved by mother

Hong Kong court hears of boy’s final moments after being beaten, starved by mother

SCMP

A five-year-old son died after his mother physically abused, confined and starved him to the point that he weighed only 9.7kg (21.38lbs), half his expected weight, a Hong Kong court has heard. The 38-year-old mother, only identified as “LST” at the High Court, on Monday pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter and another of cruelty to a child over the death of her son in September 2022. An aut...

Alan Greenspan, former US Fed Reserve chair, dies aged 100

Alan Greenspan, former US Fed Reserve chair, dies aged 100

SCMP

Alan Greenspan, hailed as the greatest Federal Reserve chairman when he retired in 2006 but derided for a severe financial crisis that followed barely two years later, died on Monday aged ⁠100, NBC News reported. Greenspan, who exerted a powerful influence on the US economy ⁠during his tenure at the helm of the Fed from August 1987 to January 2006, died at his home ⁠from complications of Parkinson...

Amid PLA pressure, Taiwan starts drill to simulate rapid deployment in a crisis

Amid PLA pressure, Taiwan starts drill to simulate rapid deployment in a crisis

SCMP

Taiwan began a combat readiness exercise on Monday that aims to boost the military’s ability to quickly move to a wartime footing, amid sustained pressure from the mainland. The Chinese mainland’s increasingly frequent air and naval operations in the region have blurred the line between peacetime and wartime and mean that the Taiwanese military will have less time to respond to a crisis, according...

Malaysian woman sorry for ‘excessive’ behaviour in video mocking locals in China

Malaysian woman sorry for ‘excessive’ behaviour in video mocking locals in China

SCMP

A woman who appeared in videos allegedly showing a group of Malaysian tourists mocking locals in China as “smelly” has apologised after days of criticism from social media users in Malaysia and China. Nur Asyiqin Mohd Dalil came under scrutiny after the clips went viral, with users criticising the remarks as insulting to locals in China and saying they reflected poorly on Malaysians abroad. In a s...

Elephants’ transfer to Japan sparks Malaysia’s corruption inquiry

Elephants’ transfer to Japan sparks Malaysia’s corruption inquiry

SCMP

Three elephants whose transfer from Malaysia to Japan earlier this year sparked public anger over their alleged mistreatment are now at the centre of a corruption investigation over claims that Putrajaya did not receive the money linked to the move. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said on Monday it had opened a formal investigation into the movement of the elephants – Dara, Amoi an...

Ex-hospital director opens China’s only school for HIV-positive children to provide shelter

Ex-hospital director opens China’s only school for HIV-positive children to provide shelter

SCMP

A former hospital director in northern China has dedicated over two decades to creating an educational sanctuary for children living with HIV. Guo Xiaoping, 63, a former director of an infectious diseases hospital in Linfen, Shanxi province, began his mission in 2004 after discovering children in hospital’s Aids ward who had reached school age but lacked access to proper education. He transformed ...

Will Philippines’ new bill entrench the political dynasties it aims to curb?

Will Philippines’ new bill entrench the political dynasties it aims to curb?

SCMP

A long-delayed bill meant to curb political dynasties in the Philippines – where powerful families dominate elected offices from Congress to local government – has moved closer to becoming law, but critics say the measure could end up protecting the clans it claims to restrain. The House of Representatives approved the measure in early June, a rare advance for an anti-dynasty law, nearly four deca...

Japan’s latest live-fire drill is about offence, not defence: PLA Daily

Japan’s latest live-fire drill is about offence, not defence: PLA Daily

SCMP

China’s military mouthpiece on Monday warned that the weapons and operational methods seen in Japan’s largest annual live-fire drill symbolised the Self-Defence Force’s acceleration towards offensive capabilities as part of its military expansion. “Japan’s military forces will become more offensive, more dangerous and more oriented towards actual combat. Japan will race forward on the road of ‘re-...

4 more suspects arrested over HK$7 million gold bar robbery at Hong Kong airport

4 more suspects arrested over HK$7 million gold bar robbery at Hong Kong airport

SCMP

Police have arrested four more suspects linked to a high-profile knifepoint robbery in Hong Kong following a joint cross-border operation, though the stolen gold bars remain missing. The robbery occurred early on Thursday at Hong Kong International Airport’s car park 3, where a 36-year-old local man, carrying a backpack loaded with six gold bars weighing about 6kg and valued at HK$7 million, was a...

China rejects trade criticism after Merz backs global yuan action

China rejects trade criticism after Merz backs global yuan action

SCMP

China pushed back against criticisms of its trade practices after the German chancellor became the latest world leader to voice complaints amid surging trade imbalances. “China never actively pursues a trade surplus,” Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang said on Monday at the opening of a supply-chain expo in Beijing. “The greatest obstacle to China increasing its imports does not lie within itself, but rat...

Chinese ride-hailing giants back Hong Kong plan to cap permits at 10,000

Chinese ride-hailing giants back Hong Kong plan to cap permits at 10,000

SCMP

Two mainland Chinese ride-hailing operators in Hong Kong have backed a controversial plan to regulate the industry by capping vehicle permits at 10,000, a figure the city’s largest American business chamber considers insufficient. In submissions to the Legislative Council on Monday and in recent days, Amap and Didi Chuxing said they supported the Transport and Logistics Bureau’s proposed cap as pa...

Mainland ride-hailing giants back Hong Kong plan to cap permits at 10,000

Mainland ride-hailing giants back Hong Kong plan to cap permits at 10,000

SCMP

Two mainland Chinese ride-hailing operators in Hong Kong have backed a controversial plan to regulate the industry by capping vehicle permits at 10,000, a figure the city’s largest American business chamber considers insufficient. In submissions to the Legislative Council on Monday and in recent days, Amap and Didi Chuxing said they supported the Transport and Logistics Bureau’s proposed cap as pa...

Starmer announces resignation, making way for UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade

Starmer announces resignation, making way for UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade

SCMP

Keir Starmer announced his intention to step down as Britain’s prime minister on Monday, succumbing to intense party pressure as his popularity plummeted and rivals manoeuvred to challenge him. “Every decision I have taken has been about putting the country I love first. That is why I will resign as leader of the Labour Party,” an emotional Starmer said in a short speech outside 10 Downing Street ...

Starmer resigns, making way for UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade

Starmer resigns, making way for UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade

SCMP

Keir Starmer announced his intention to step down as Britain’s prime minister on Monday, succumbing to intense party pressure as his popularity plummeted and rivals have manoeuvred to challenge him. Starmer made the announcement on the same day his likely successor, Andy Burnham, was due to be sworn in as an MP after winning a pivotal vote last Friday. For months, political buzz has been building ...

Starmer resigns, making way for seventh UK prime minister in a decade

Starmer resigns, making way for seventh UK prime minister in a decade

SCMP

Keir Starmer announced his intention to step down as Britain’s prime minister on Monday, succumbing to intense party pressure as his popularity plummeted and rivals have manoeuvred to challenge him. Starmer made the announcement on the same day his likely successor, Andy Burnham, was due to be sworn in as an MP after winning a pivotal vote last Friday. For months, political buzz has been building ...

Singaporean man traumatised over ex-schoolmate’s AI photos of them as family

Singaporean man traumatised over ex-schoolmate’s AI photos of them as family

SCMP

At first glance, the images looked like those of a happy family in Singapore. There were photos of the couple during their school days and on dates, the woman pregnant and the man holding their supposed newborn with a caption that read: “My boys”. Except the family did not exist – the images were all AI-generated. The man in the photos did not even know about them until a friend alerted him in Dec...

What retail apocalypse? Southeast Asia’s malls are sitting pretty

What retail apocalypse? Southeast Asia’s malls are sitting pretty

SCMP

A cursory look at the ranking of the world’s largest shopping centres shows the scale of the decline in the US retail property market. The US has only one, the Mall of America near Minneapolis, Minnesota, among the top 20. This is not surprising given that virtually no shopping centres were built in the last two decades. A succession of shocks – which included the disruptive impact of e-commerce, ...

1 year in prison for gang member who forced 2 Thai women into prostitution in Hong Kong

1 year in prison for gang member who forced 2 Thai women into prostitution in Hong Kong

SCMP

A Hong Kong court has sentenced a 70-year-old gang member to a year in prison for forcing two Thai women into prostitution, after they fell for job scams claiming to be hiring massage therapists and were trafficked from Thailand to the city in 2023. The District Court heard on Monday that Chiu Hon-leung ordered other gang members to lock the two women in a flat in Yau Ma Tei’s Temple Street and fo...

Bangladesh urges Malaysia to ease labour hiring curbs amid exploitation concerns

Bangladesh urges Malaysia to ease labour hiring curbs amid exploitation concerns

SCMP

Bangladesh’s new leader has urged Malaysia to reopen its labour market to more Bangladeshi workers, even as migrant rights groups warned that both governments must first address years of recruitment abuse, debt and stranded-worker cases. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman made the request to Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim during talks in Putrajaya on Monday, his first foreign visit since taking...

South Korea’s ex-justice minister jailed for 25 years over martial law bid

South Korea’s ex-justice minister jailed for 25 years over martial law bid

SCMP

A court sentenced a former South Korean justice minister on Monday to 25 years in prison for his role in ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol’s brief and disastrous declaration of martial law in 2024. Park Sung-jae was found guilty of involvement in “insurrection”, the Yonhap news agency reported from the Seoul Central District Court. Yoon’s December 2024 martial law declaration lasted only about six hours ...

24 drivers arrested, over 4,000 tickets issued in crackdown on errant road users

24 drivers arrested, over 4,000 tickets issued in crackdown on errant road users

SCMP

Hong Kong police arrested 24 drivers and issued over 4,000 tickets during a two-week crackdown on distracted driving and jaywalking, after the number deaths in road accidents surged more than 40 per cent in the first five months of the year. During the two citywide operations from June 5 to 19, officers deployed unmarked traffic enforcement vehicles against dangerous driving behaviour such as usin...